BPO complains about show’s sexual themes in relation to its broadcast schedule.
Anime series with stories of siblings that may or may not be romantically interested in each other have certainly become more common these days. But according to a Japanese broadcasting organization, one such show may have gone too far.
Saikin Imoto no Yosu ga Chotto Okashiin da ga (abbreviated as ImoCho and promoted in English as Recently, My Sister is Unusual), an anime based from a manga series of the same name created by Mari Matsuzawa, premiered on January 14 and is currently airing on Tokyo MX and Sun TV.
The story is about high school students Mitsuki and Yuuya Kanzaki who become half-siblings since their parents have remarried. Mitsuki is then posessed by a spirit named Hiyori who commands her to become involved in a romantic and sexual relationship with her half-brother Yuuya so that she (Hiyori) can reach heaven, and that her failure to do so would cause Mitsuki’s death.
The show has since caught the attention of the Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization or BPO, a Japanese non-government organization that aims to “promote higher ethical standards while ensuring freedom of speech.” In that sense, its closest Philippine equivalent would be the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas or KBP.
The organization’s main issue with ImoCho is the show’s sexual themes that it sees as inappropriate for the show’s initial timeslot of 10:00pm JST.
“Despite the fact that 10pm is not an unusual time for middle and high school students to be watching television, the program contains explicit sexual situations, such as a high school girl talking about masturbating,” the chairman of BPO’s Broadcast Committee for Youth Programming says.
The networks airing ImoCho have since responded to BPO’s complaint, with Tokyo MX moving the show’s timeslot to Tuesdays at 1:30am, while Sun TV moves it to Saturdays at 2:00am (all times JST).
SOURCE: RocketNews24
